© 2005 Steve McIntosh
© 2005 The Urantia Book Fellowship
| Legacy in Peril: Children and the Urantia Community | Volume 6, Number 1, 2005 (Summer) — Index | Science Cannot Replace Religion |
A growing number of Urantia Book readers are discovering the power of a new evolutionary philosophy that compliments the book’s teachings and provides significant opportunities for their application. Known as “integral philosophy,” this new worldview promises to have a major impact on the history of the 21st century.
Integral philosophy represents the culmination of a line of thought that developed throughout the 20th century. Its founders include Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Alfred North Whitehead. However, it is only in the last 10 years or so that the integral worldview has really come alive through a synthesis of systems science, developmental psychology, and various spiritually-oriented philosophies of evolution. Contemporary proponents of integral philosophy include Ken Wilber, Don Beck, and David Ray Griffin.
This article provides a brief introduction to one the most important aspects of integral philosophy—the spiral of development in consciousness and culture. This “internal universe structure” traces the evolution of values through discreet, universal stages of development. And by recognizing these sequential stages of development in the evolution of human culture, we can begin to see the next “stage of consciousness” that is now beginning to appear on the horizon of history. The article concludes with a description of integral philosophy’s advocacy of world government, and suggests how Urantia Book readers can now begin to take more direct action toward the achievement of this important aspect of the book’s teachings.
¶ The Spiral Of Development In Consciousness And Culture
Integral philosophy provides a new understanding of cultural evolution through its recognition of the systemic structure known as the “spiral of development.” The spiral of development was originally discovered within the field of developmental psychology, which is based on the significant research of many famous academics, including Jean Piaget, Lawrence Kohlberg, Jane Lovinger, and Abraham Maslow. These researchers found that human consciousness develops through a series of distinct stages, and that these stages continue to govern development even after adulthood is reached. And although the findings of the developmentalists are often discounted in the politically contentious field of academic psychology, decades of subsequent cross-cultural research has almost unequivocally validated the existence of hierarchical universal levels of human development.
Among developmental psychologists, integral philosophy owes its greatest debt to the work of Clare Graves, who was the first to see how these stages of individual human development are a recapitulation of the stages of human history. That is, just as in biological evolution, where we see a human fetus grow through the stages of the entire tree of life as it develops in the womb, we can likewise see within the development of each human mind, a rough approximation of the evolution of human cultural history.
Each stage of consciousness is a natural epistemology, a worldview that arises from a specific set of values. These value stages behave like living dynamic systems that organize both entire human societies as well as the minds of the individuals who participate in those societies. To quote Graves:
“These value systems serve to organize a person’s consciousness because they engender loyalty and provide identity—they nourish consciousness and contribute to its sense of self.”
Graves’ research revealed further that these sequential stages are themselves naturally organized in a systemic, structural relationship that forms the dialectic spiral of development illustrated below.
Each worldview or value stage arises in response to a given set of life conditions. So the life conditions of primitive survival result in one stage of consciousness, whereas coping with the problems of the modern world result in others. These stages are not “types of people,” they are types of consciousness within people. There are folks who exemplify these stages perfectly and others who defy categorization. In the developed world most people occupy more than one of these stages at different times—for most of us, these levels sound more in chords than in single notes. However, most people do find that they have a general center of gravity that can be identified within a specific level. As a brief overview, the tables below provide a comparative glimpse of the life conditions, the values, the enduring contributions, the pathologies, and the exemplary leaders of each of these stages of consciousness. The spiral’s dialectical pattern of thesis-antithesis-synthesis is seen in the way that the stages on the right of the spiral tend to be more individualistic, emphasizing the expression of the self; whereas the stages on the left tend to be more communitarian, emphasizing the sacrifice of the self for the sake of the group.
Obviously, this is a rich and complex subject that cannot be explained adequately in this short article. However, because of their knowledge of The Urantia Book, I often find that readers have an intuitive grasp of these stages, which are reminiscent of the book’s description of the seven psychic circles.
TRIBAL CONSCIOUSNESS
Perceived Life Conditions:
A mysterious, threatening, and spirit-controlled world where spirits must be placated and fear > drives many decisions
Worldview and Values:
- Sacrifice self for kin, tribe and ancestors
- Show allegiance to elders, customs, clan
- Preserve sacred places, objects, rituals
- Obey whims of mystical spirit beings
Contribution to the Spiral:
Family and kinship loyalty, a strong sense of the enchantment of the world, innocence, > imagination, closeness to nature
Pathology:
Superstitious, violent, slavery to the group, docile, naive
Contemporary Examples:
Some indigenous peoples and children
Organizational Structure:
Tribe or Clan
Exemplary Leaders:
Chief Seattle, Chief Joseph
Estimated & of World Population: 10%
As illustrated above, the spiral can be traced to the earliest form of human consciousness, called “archaic consciousness,” which today can only be found in infants. Our description of the stages of the spiral, however, starts with the tribal stage of consciousness, because this is where human culture, and therefore human consciousness nourished and molded by culture, arguably begins. Every person alive today has a tribe in their ancestral past, and the cultural features of tribal peoples from diverse parts of the world are remarkably similar.
The tribal stage of consciousness and culture is pretty stable, it can continue with little development for thousands of years. But as with every stage, as the problematic life conditions that gave rise to this stage begin to be resolved, the accumulating excess energy creates a longing for change. So we find that the solutions of one stage become the problems of the next. And in this case, the next stage to arise is what is best termed “warrior consciousness.” This stage of awareness arises in children as the ego differentiates from the family. It arises in culture as the youth of the tribe struggle to liberate themselves from the dominance of tribal restraints.
WARRIOR CONSCIOUSNESS
Perceived Life Conditions:
Oppressive tribal control and pathology; craves honor; fears shame; the world is a jungle full of threats and predators–dog eat dog, bit or be bitten
Worldview and Values:
- Express self, hell with others
- Gratify impulses now, without guilt
- Fight to gain control at any cost
- Trust yourself and no one else
Contribution to the Spiral:
Individual empowerment, initiative, action orientation
Pathology:
Violent, ruthless, moral bankruptcy of egocentric ethics, always at war
Contemporary Examples:
Urban street gangs, Afghanistan
Organizational Structure:
Early Empires, warring hordes, gangs
Exemplary Leaders:
Alexander the great, Genghis Khan
Estimated & of World Population: 15%
As described in each of these tables, every stage of cultural development has a healthy aspect and a pathological aspect—a dignity and a disaster. Even after a particular stage has been largely transcended in a society’s development, there remains an aspect of that stage which provides an enduring contribution to the spiral as a whole. That is why each stage has an intrinsic value that must be recognized. When it comes to children, we don’t value second graders less than sixth graders. We recognize that sixth graders are more educated and more independent, but certainly not more valuable in an absolute sense. And so it is with the stages of consciousness.
Although the warrior stage of consciousness is socially undesirable as viewed by modern sensibilities, its “dignity” is found in its motive force, its energetic focus and determination. As Jesus explained in his talk on “why the heathen rage,” because the outlook of this wave of awareness is narrow and immediate, goals are near and visible, and one’s energies can be concentrated enthusiastically. Warrior consciousness thus serves to break the inertia of biologically-based tribal consciousness and launch consciousness and culture into its developmental progression. But the violence and turmoil that is often seen at this stage of consciousness creates a kind of birth trauma, a fiery ordeal through which developing civilization must pass.
Understanding warrior consciousness and the problematic life conditions it creates is important for our understanding of the next sequential stage to emerge in history, which is where the largest group of the earth’s population now finds itself. The evolutionary appearance of “traditional consciousness” constitutes a significant breakthrough for civilization. With traditional consciousness we move from the egocentric morality of warrior consciousness to an ethnocentric morality that strives for a true sense of brotherhood among the members of the in-group. Today of course, ethnocentricism is something we condemn through our allegiance to a more worldcentric morality. But in the course of human history, ethnocentricism is a step forward from what came before. The table below provides an overview of traditional consciousness.
TRADITIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS
Perceived Life Conditions:
An “evil” world without law and order, a world where God’s law should reign supreme
Worldview and Values:
- Sacrifice self for the One True Way
- A “black & white” sense of right & wrong
- Loyalty to the rules of the mythic order
- Salvation through obedience and faith
Contribution to the Spiral:
Sense of civic duty, law & order, respect for authority. Strong moral regard for group members, preserves traditions, loyalty, hope and a strong sense of faith
Pathology:
Rigid intolerance, dogmatic fanaticism, extreme fundamentalism, chauvinism
Contemporary Examples:
Religious fundamentalism, extreme nationalism, conservative ideologies
Organizational Structure:
Feudalism, Dictatorships, Bureaucracy, Military-like organization
Exemplary Leaders:
Billy Graham,Winston Churchill, MotherTeresa
Estimated & of World Population:: 55%
To understand the dignity and the evolutionary necessity of this stage of consciousness it is necessary to see how this level acts as an important foundation for the stages of consciousness that come after it. Without a stable base of traditional consciousness, attempts to evolve to higher stages often collapse back into the chaos of warrior culture as a result of corruption and conflicts between rival in-groups. In order for higher levels of civilization to be stable and sustainable, the enduring contributions of the earlier stages must be in place and functioning. No matter how much we’d like to, we can’t permanently skip ahead to higher stages without integrating the lower. That is, we have to cultivate and maintain the enduring contributions of the earlier stages in order to make the transcendence to higher stages sustainable.
Traditional consciousness has been around in various forms for at least 3000 years. Only the most successful versions of it have led to the transition to the next stage known as “modernism.” Although we can see its initial and unsustainable appearance during the golden age of ancient Greece, the modernist consciousness we are familiar with emerged primarily during the Enlightenment.
MODERNIST CONSCIOUSNESS
Perceived Life Conditions:
Opportunities for a better standard of living and improved social position for the individual, need to escape oppressive dogmatic systems, need to demystify material world
Worldview and Values:
- The “good life” and material abundance
- Progress through science, technology and the “best” solution
- Winning and competition
- Individual autonomy and independence—liberty
Contribution to the Spiral:
Meritocracy, upward mobility; the middle class, excellence through competition, technology, scientific medicine, confidence in progress
Pathology:
Materialism, nihilism, exploitive, selfish greed
Contemporary Examples:
Corporate culture, modern science, mainstream media
Organizational Structure:
Democratic capitalism, corporations, strategic alliances
Exemplary Leaders:
John F. Kennedy, Bill Gates, Margaret Sanger, Carl Sagan, Issac Newton
Estimated & of World Population:: 15%
With modernism came the liberal ideals of religious freedom, democracy, gender equality, freedom of speech and press, and the equality of all persons before the law. And even though the modern world has yet to deliver these “dignities” in a fair and universal distribution to all citizens, it was through modernity itself that these rights and freedoms where originally conceived as achievable ideals. However, despite these contributions, and despite the spectacular material success of modernity, strong arguments can be made that the disasters of modernity far outweigh the dignities. With modernity came materialism, colonialism, horrifically destructive military technologies, and increasing environmental degradation. But from an evolutionary perspective, this is just another example of one level’s solutions creating the next level’s problems. Because the culture of modernity was more complex and developed than previous stages, its potential for good and bad were both magnified.
Modernity was successful. And its success is demonstrated by the fact that it provided the platform for its own transcendence by the next stage of consciousness to arise in the sequence of history, which is best termed “postmodernism.” The term “postmodern,” of course, has been used to describe a variety of different cultural currents. It is used here, however, as a defined term for the overall stage of culture that has arisen in the last 40 years as an alternative to modernism. Postmodern consciousness is characterized by a high degree of sensitivity—sensitivity to those who have been previously marginalized or exploited, sensitivity to the needs and fragility of the environment, and sensitivity to the charms of the feminine way of knowing.
POSTMODERN CONSCIOUSNESS
Perceived Life Conditions:
Presence of exploitive, corrupt hierarchy, environmental degradation, shallow materialism, suffering of others
Worldview and Values:
- Inclusion of those previously marginalized or exploited
- Consensus decisions making & egalitarianism
- Environmentalism and preference for “natural”
- Multiculturalism and spiritual diversity
- Personal growth of the “whole person”
- Sensitivity
Contribution to the Spiral:
Worldcentric morality, recognition of human potential, increased responsibility for people and the planet, compassion and inclusion, celebration of the feminine, renewed spiritual freedom and creativity
Pathology:
Value relativism, narcissism, denial of hierarchy, contempt of modernism
Contemporary Examples:
Progressive culture, critical academia, environmental movement, political correctness, the Netherlands
Organizational Structure:
Democratic socialism, consensus committees, self-directed teams
Exemplary Leaders:
John Lennon, Johm Muir, MLK, Margaret Mead, Joan Baez
Estimated & of World Population: <5%
Although it can be traced back to 19th century writers such as Henry David Thoreau, postmodern consciousness did not emerge as a significant cultural structure until the 1960s. So because it is the most recent stage to emerge, postmodernism is thus the most evolved stage of consciousness that has yet to appear in the culture of the world. And because it is the most evolved, it is thus the most morally advanced stage of consciousness, and deserves to be honored and praised. However, because of its inherent limitations, postmodernism also needs to be transcended and included by a new evolutionary development. Further cultural evolution will be required in order for our society to find realistic solutions to the growing problems of the world. And it is in its clear recognition of this next stage of cultural evolution that integral philosophy achieves its greatest impact.
¶ The Integral Stage Of Consciousness
As we come to more fully see the evolutionary dynamics of these value systems, we can begin to more fully appreciate what integral consciousness is and why its emergence is inevitable. Indeed, I believe that the rise of this worldview will signal the end of the “materialistic-secular panic” prophesized by the Revelators on page 2076.
Like each of the previous stages, integral consciousness arises in response to what might be characterized as a “push and a pull.” The push for a new stage of consciousness comes from the pressure of unsatisfactory life conditions that call forth solutions that existing levels can’t supply. The pull arises from the attraction power of a new stage’s values—new truth, new beauty, and new ideals of morality that always accompany the birth of a new historical level. So first we’ll look at the push toward integral consciousness, and then we’ll examine the pull of the values of the integral worldview.
¶ Life Conditions For Integral Consciousness
Each stage identifies problems and then develops solutions for those problems as part of its natural value metabolism. Yet eventually, excessive applications of those very solutions create new problems that can only be solved by a higher level. For example, traditional consciousness identifies the need to reduce lawless violence and evil in the world, yet it creates oppression. Modernist consciousness identifies opportunities for development and discovery, yet it creates gross inequalities. Postmodern consciousness identifies the need to honor and include everyone, yet it creates blindness to comparative excellence.
Moreover, each of these previous stages has a tendency to see the other stages primarily for their pathologies; there is a lack of understanding about how the other world-views are actually most appropriate for a given set of life conditions. For instance, most modernists see the postmodern worldview as some kind of politically correct fashion. Postmodern sensibilities are often dismissed as “airy fairy,” or “weak and woo woo.” Likewise, traditionalists often see those who fail to ascribe to their worldview as sinners or worse. And postmodernists also tend to vilify modernists and traditionalists as the real cause of the world’s problems. Thus, in most developed countries we have the increasingly bitter clash of worldviews wherein each of the stages are battling it out for control of the laws and mores of their societies. And it is in the simultaneous existence of these seemingly unresolvable culture wars that we see a need—a problematic life condition—that calls forth the transcendent vision of integral consciousness.
In addition to the problematic life conditions caused by the increasing conflict between the stages, integral consciousness also finds its animating life conditions in the growing global problems that are increasingly affecting everyone: environmental degradation, terrorism, unfettered corporate globalization, hunger, poverty, disease, and war. Now, these global problems have been previously well-identified by postmodern consciousness—postmodernism’s worldcentric morality naturally sees the urgent need to protect the environment and to care for the needy. Most of us can see how the problems identified by postmodernism are very real and very threatening. Yet it is postmodernism’s failure to offer effective and realistic solutions to the problems it identifies that creates a need for the integral vision. Postmodernism’s solutions call for a “transformation of global consciousness,” and this is often accompanied by the admonition: “that we all need to come together, and wake up to the fact that we’re really all one people.” And if it were possible for the world to come together like this, it would indeed provide many solutions. But when we look at the spiral of development, we can see that the next step for the majority of the world’s population is the transition into traditional consciousness or modernist consciousness. So through our increased understanding of the evolution of consciousness and culture, we can see that the majority of the world isn’t going to adopt the values of postmodern consciousness anytime soon. Thus we need to find solutions that don’t require the entire world to become postmodern in some kind of miraculous transformation. So in summary, it is the contemporary life conditions of increasingly bitter culture wars, looming global disasters, and the failure of postmodernism to offer realistic solutions to the problems it identifies that serve as the push, the pressure that is resulting in evolutionary development.
¶ The Values of Integral Consciousness
Perhaps more than anything else, integral consciousness values evolution. And with this comes a concern for what has been termed the “prime directive.” The prime directive is to work to maintain the health and sustainability of the spiral of development as a whole, the channel of evolution. Because every infant begins life at the level of archaic consciousness, the flow of evolution through the levels is unceasing. Thus, for cultural evolution to be sustainable, we need to affirm and strengthen the enduring contributions of each stage while simultaneously pruning away the remaining pathologies of these foundational stages. Caring for the spiral as a whole means preserving the evolutionary opportunities for every person, regardless of that person’s place in the sequence of evolution.
However, the values of the prime directive include not only the values of progress and development through the stages, but also the inherent value of each stage as it is in itself. One of my favorite quotes by Clare Graves is his famous exclamation: “Damn it, people have a right to be who they are!” This of course applies not only to the fragile tribal cultures we all want to protect, but also to fundamentalist cultures that may not be as appealing to postmodern sensibilities. So in addition to valuing the channel of evolution of consciousness and culture as a whole, integral consciousness is also able to appreciate the healthy values of each stage in a new way. For example, when it comes to setting up an organization, postmodern consciousness naturally wants to create a non-hierarchical, consensus type of organization. And for some conditions this is entirely appropriate. But for other life conditions, such an organization can be highly dysfunctional. Integral consciousness, however, can better read the life conditions and thus create the kind of organization most appropriate for the members and for the task—if the situation calls for a command and control military-style organization, integral consciousness can create this, or if a group’s purposes can best be served through an incentive-based corporate organization, integral consciousness can create this. It is by being able to more fully use the values and methods of all the previous stages that integral consciousness is able to transcend all the previous stages—that is, it transcends by including, it grows up by reaching down. As we are increasingly coming to see, in the scheme of evolution, the degree of our transcendence is measured by the scope of our inclusion.
So for purposes of comparison, here’s a table summarizing the characteristics of integral consciousness:
INTEGRAL CONSCIOUSNESS
Perceived Life Conditions:
Conflict between at least 3 previous stages, looming global problems, failure of postmodernism to offer solutions
Worldview and Values:
- New insight into the “internal universe”
- Confidence in potential of evolutionary philosophy
- Personal responsibility for problems of the world
- Renewal appreciation of previous stages’ values
- Appreciation of conflicting truth & dialectic reasoning
- Aspiration for the harmonization of science & religion
Contribution to the Spiral:
Practical worldcentric morality, compassion for all worldviews, revival of philosophy, seeing spirituality in evolution, motivation to achieve significant results
Pathology:
Elitism, aloofness, lack of patience
Organizational Structure:
World Federalism, any structure appropriate for given life con¬ditions (orgs. from any of the previous levels)
Exemplary Leaders:
Albert Einstein, Thich Nhat Hanh, Teilhard de Chardin, Alfred North Whitehead, David Ray Griffin, Ken Wilber
Estimated & of World Population: <1%
The heart of integral consciousness is the ability to see and act upon the expanded vertical perspective that comes from new knowledge of the internal universe and its evolutionary dynamics. Integral consciousness’ confidence in the truth of the spiral structure of development arises from a variety of different “proofs.” As already explained, the stages of consciousness identified by integral philosophy have been discovered and reconfirmed through decades of cross-cultural research on individuals. But evidence for the structure of the spiral can also found in the way it describes the developmental events of history so well. When we look at human history through the lens of the spiral we can more clearly see why some societies have progressed and others have remained stagnant. This is important because history is very much alive today—as we can see, not everyone in the world is living in the same “time in history.” So by more fully appreciating this living history that shapes our world in the present, we can use the spiral to better see how things have gotten stuck, and we can thus help people move forward in ways that are most appropriate for them. Moreover, in addition to the psychological and historical evidence for the spiral, perhaps the most significant proof of its truth is how extremely useful it is. I can say that I really use the spiral every day; it is inestimably useful in almost everything I do.
Nevertheless, when thinking about integral consciousness, it is important to remember that this is not just a tool for problem solving, it is an identity-providing platform for cultural allegiance, a worldview that invites your passion and your loyalty. And the aspect of integral consciousness that will perhaps come to engender the most passion and loyalty will be the integral worldview’s political agenda.
¶ Integral Politics
Integral philosophy transcends and includes the politics of both left and right by recognizing how the values of the previous stages of awareness each have appropriate appli¬cations to different sets of life conditions. Sometimes the solutions of traditionalists apply, sometimes a modernist’s approach is best, and sometimes the sensibilities of the postmodern worldview should prevail. It is not that integral consciousness values these approaches equally—it can see that postmodernism is more evolved than the others—but integral consciousness can also see where postmodernism is not evolved enough to always work for the benefit of the spiral as a whole. Thus by including the best while rejecting the worst of all worldviews in “life condition-appropriate proportion,” the integral worldview is able to transcend all previous worldviews in its power to produce cultural evolution.
The whole point of integralism is to move beyond the idea of “old paradigm bad, new paradigm good.” When postmodernism held the position at the cutting edge of evo¬lution, harsh criticisms of the old paradigm served a useful function as a power-generating stance of antithesis. How¬ever, now that postmodernism is maturing, as we are called to participate in the next great phase of human history, we can move beyond focusing primarily on the deconstruction of modernism.
Integral politics, however, involve more than a synthesis of left and right. The integral worldview as I understand it also provides a transcendent vision of a new form of human government. In fact, every new worldview to emerge in history brings with it a central political issue around which its emergence coheres. For example, when traditional consciousness reemerged in Europe in the eleventh century, the political authority of the Christian Church was established across the continent. When modernism emerged in the eighteenth century, the political issue of democracy served to bring people into the modernist set of values. Similarly, during the emergence of postmodernism in the 1960s, the twin political issues of peace in Viet Nam and civil rights served to attract many to postmodernism’s worldcentric morality.
So what will be integral consciousness’ transcendent political vision? It will be the central political issue of the 21st century—the inauguration of a limited, democratic, federal, and integral world government. Integral world government is defined as a global federation of nations united under a constitution of laws guided by the insights and principles of integral philosophy. Just as Enlightenment philosophy was used as a guide in the drafting of the American and French constitutions, integral philosophy will likewise serve as a guide for a world federal constitution.
The creation of a world federation would not require all nations to join at once. It may take a century for the world to become fully united; but once the U.S. and the E.U. establish such a federation, many of the extraordinary benefits of global governance will begin to accrue. An integral world federation would be instituted to provide democratic oversight of the global economy, protect the world’s environment, establish a universal bill of human rights, preserve cultural diversity, and bring an eventual end to war, disease, and poverty. And an integral world government would provide for a system of global justice, which would reduce the incentives for terrorism. As global problems become more urgent, the need for a morally-legitimate system of global law becomes more acute, and this makes a world federation not only more desirable and achievable, but also inevitable.
Without the insights of integral philosophy, the idea of a democratic federal world government lacks the necessary power to stimulate the kind of popular movement that will be required for its inauguration. However, when the idea of world federation is supercharged with integral theory’s understanding of evolution, its appeal is empowered and its ability to create agreement and passion is significantly enhanced.
It’s true that the movement for integral world federation depends upon the development of the underlying structures of integral culture in a certain percentage of the population. However, as integral philosophy finds its application in the movement for world federation, and as the broader integral agenda becomes more well-defined, the potency of these ideas will help raise the consciousness of many to the integral level. So just as democracy and modernism cocreated each other in the 18th century, we will see something very similar as the movement for world federation and integral consciousness bring each other into being.
Towards this end, I have created an online petition (modeled after Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence) entitled: A Declaration of the Value of Global Governance. This petition website, found at: www.integralworldgovernment.org, provides an opportunity for political action and explains how the worldview and values of integral consciousness can lead to this next great step in the development of human history. This website also includes a bibliography of integral philosophy books and links to other websites within the integral movement. I thus invite each of you to add your name to this online petition and support our efforts at putting The Urantia Book’s teachings into action.
Steve McIntosh has been a student of The Urantia Book since 1973. Trained as a lawyer, he now runs a consumer product company called Now & Zen. Steve is currently working on a book about integral philosophy.
¶ References
- Article obtained from The Fellowship site
| Legacy in Peril: Children and the Urantia Community | Volume 6, Number 1, 2005 (Summer) — Index | Science Cannot Replace Religion |